Warning: Cuteness Overload

 

Well, it all started early last June…..

1) This guy starts visiting regularly and riling up Phineas and Zorro (our indoor Cat Bosses).

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We think this is an “Evil Wild Tomcat”, just stirring up trouble.

 

2) Then James has a big surprise. He sees movement under the wood pile, just beyond where we sit on our porch swing to look out over the valley. He literally drags me dripping out of my shower to come and see!!

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It’s a close call but, after a while, I convince him to put this baby back where he got it as it is WAY too little for humans to mess with.
 

3) Then later that day I see a different but regular visitor in our yard and she is glowing so I have to take her picture.

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(Can you see why she is “glowing”?)

 
4) James, uninterested in my Mama Deer, has stationed himself by the woodpile, you know, just in case….

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5) And sure enough, look who he finds!!!!

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UH OH!!

We already have two “very bad cats” (aren’t they all?)

So I am screaming, “NO, no! For god’s sake, don’t FEED them!”

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I had a hard time getting James to put them back. I’m afraid we may have several new residents if I don’t watch him (James) closely!

 
6) Speaking of watching closely, apparently “Evil Tom” is actually “Protective MOM!” Here she is guarding the woodpile.

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7) And as if this was not enough “cute” for one day…as we arrived home from a quick trip to town, look who we nearly ran into!!!

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She is still licking them off.

IMG_1988                                                  First suckle.

We watched as she led them off into the woods for safety, and no doubt, a rest.

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She’s not so Robust/rotund anymore, is she?

 

 

8) Had enough Cuteness for one day??? Not so fast! We get home and have to check on our 3 new little “guest” kittens, right? And guess what!!!

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We discover this white one!

Now THERE ARE FOUR!!!  So far, anyway……..

I’m exhausted from delight!

As Paul Harvey would always say “And now, the rest of the story.”

Any guesses as to which one we kept??

We eventually found homes for 3 of them, with folks who were committed to socializing these terrified kittens, but this little tough one, the smallest, would just not leave us alone. She would bound out to see us even as her siblings would scatter and hide.

 

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Meet Lucy, named by my grandsons who wanted her to have a strong (super hero) girl name. The movie Lucy had just been released and though they were not allowed to see it, they got the idea from the previews.

 

(parts of this story were published previously in Pacific Northwest Green Friends Newsletter)


Next Chapter:

Lucy’s Story

Black and White, Light and Dark

I can tell a lot about my mood and general state of mind simply by what I choose to write about. I am absolutely blessed to have had a big enough range of experiences now (at 67 years old) that I can see how trauma and chaos will inevitably be balanced by joy and peace….if I can just wait long enough.

This is a disclaimer for my readers (all 4 or 5 of you now) so you can decide what you are in the mood for reading should you choose to check out my Blog on any given day.

Life has given me two very distinct kinds of experiences and I need to write about both….Consider yourself warned.

Thanks for reading either.

Kathie

Like holding air in your hand….

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This is one of my bugs, (Extatosoma tiaratum). She is about 1/3 of the way through her life. She will more than double in size, and then I will be able to feel her weight, barely. In this photo, but for the faint tickle of her claws on my skin, she is completely weightless. I can’t feel her.

 

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I watched this little one for a hours one day and couldn’t tell if she was scruffy old and ready to go, or young and still shedding baby fluff.

The next day, I found her dead on the ground under the feeder. When I picked her up, she seemed to weigh even less than my full grown Bugs. I still could not guess her age.

 

Words for Wordless Wednesday (is this cheating?)

I posted a picture yesterday of our sweet kitten, Lucy. She’s a cat now really, but you know how long the “baby of the family” gets to retain that position indefinitely. I know cats can be fascinated by TV but it startled me to see it happen with Lucy, and only twice now.

If you are a cat person, and also occasionally indulge in reality TV, you might even recognize the (bad) picture on the screen. ( I worded that carefully because I would not want to imply a necessary connection between those two categories of people…)

If you don’t know who is on the screen, let me introduce you to Jackson Galaxy (rock musician by night and cat whisperer by day). His “educational” TV show is called My Cat from Hell, and he  “helps couples resolve conflict and behavioral issues between them and their cats”.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Galaxy

Lucy, a typically hyper cat, sat and watched his show for the longest time. Go figure.

Oh and the only other time she has been glued to the TV in this way was for this program. (another lousy picture, but you get the idea.)

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Circle

Circle

lights…rainbow lights…reflected lights…all those colors…

I never understood my generation’s need for drug altered states of mind.

“Wow, man, look at all the colors!”

It’s all right there, for you to see whether or not you partake…(insert drug of choice here).

So when these amazing new magic circles were first introduced, delivering all our music and technology, I quickly discovered their beautiful back sides!

I fell in love with them and have been photographing them ever since.

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Still not sure how to connect this to the Weekly Photo Challenge however.

I have accidentally done it a time or two, and even had help once but am at a loss right now as to how.

Anyway, that’s my thought on “Circle”, for today, at least…

 

Dear Badfish

sorry about the flu but hoping some beach love is re-awakened!

I was to attend a fancy Maui beach wedding once which required “formal beach wear”. Found an appropriate dress but not shoes so shopped several high-end boutiques in Carlsbad, CA asking sweet young sales girls if they sold “beaded thongs”, meaning, of course, the shoe variety. Hey, I thought a flip flop with beads could pass for dressy!

The embarrassed looks on the faces of these young women, thirty years (as well as pounds) my junior, were confusing…but priceless once I figured out what they were picturing as they looked at me (and not at my feet!)

Thanks for the vicarious visit to the beach.

…and it was suggested I put the story in my blog. So there it is. The last time I told that story was as an icebreaker at the ritzy rehearsal dinner for a wedding I officiated. (The couple’s parents were Jewish and Christian, but my couple wanted a Buddhist-like wedding.) I figured if I could get all the newly-introduced parents to laugh together, things might go better the next day. Yeah, I know. I’m a martyr…but hey, it worked.

Badfish wrote that he had lived in San Diego eons ago so I responded to that but somehow lost my response AND now can’t even find his comment!

I’ll take the blogging course soon so I have a clue what I am doing. Not that it will guarantee success. Apparently, I have very bad computer karma, or a strange electronic field around me that often causes computer malfunction and death if I so much as wave my hands close to the keyboard. Seriously. When I got a new laptop last year, everyone in my household could make it work just fine, but me? No such luck. It was a mystery that so intrigued the Microsoft Store Assistant Manager, that arrangements were made for a house-call (unheard of) to witness the phenomenon.

Anyway…

Dear Badfish,

I grew up in San Diego (Pacific Beach) but have lived in the glorious Northwest now for many years. I still have places and people to visit in North County (Cardiff, Del Mar, Carlsbad, etc.) which I do as often as I can.  You and I had an exchange before about beaches and you said  “if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all”…or something equally jaded. So I started searching through old photos I’ve taken because beaches are one of my favorite subjects.

This is totally an experiment. Here goes.

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Sand Art

 Kinda blurry but I hope you get the idea.

Oh and you asked if I ever found some beaded thongs for that formal beach wedding. Here they are.

Please excuse the sexy socks. It’s freezing here!!!

I wonder if it’s too early for a Hot Buttered RUM! It is New Year’s Eve after all.

Sincerely,

Kathie (of chosenperspectives)

Northwest’s “dark” reputation!

Imagine, after 20 days of the third wettest (and darkest) December in history, you walk out your front door, into the cold bright sunlight….all bundled up, just to get the mail.

And you spot this late blooming rosebud among the dried out rose hips and naked trees long emptied of their  orange and yellow leaves….

“Late Bloomer” indeed.IMG_5905